How To Make A Firing Squad Less Scary Dr PETER DAY

Feedback and the National Student Survey

The National Student Survey for Higher Education in the United Kingdom annually highlights that university students feel that they do not receive enough or clear feedback on their studies with only half suggesting positive feedback 9 - Feedback on my work has helped me clarify things I did not understand. 56% positive NSS 2008 The figures show a student perception that feedback is not effective

Feedback Professor John Hattie

Feedback has the greatest impact on student learning? John Hattie Prof Education University of Auckland – The Power of Feedback and Teachers Make A Difference A synthesis of 500,000 educational studies An effect size of 0.5 is equivalent to a one grade leap at GCSE An effect size of 1.0 is equivalent to a two grade leap at GCSE

Feedback can be personal in the sense that it is directed to the "self," which, we argue below, is too often unrelated to performance on the task Examples of such feedback include "You are a great student" and "That’s an intelligent response, well done" Feedback that does not work- Self/personal feedback – this is a great piece of work

Feedback to students can be focused at the self-regulation level, including greater skill in self-evaluation or confidence to engage further on a task For example, "You already know the key features of the opening of an argument. Check to see whether you have incorporated them in your first paragraph" Such feedback can have major influences on self-efficacy, self-regulatory proficiencies, and self-beliefs about students as learners, such that the students are encouraged or informed how to better and more effortlessly continue on the task Feedback that works - for self regulation

Dr Peter Day 08/09 The Art Crit, Verbal Feedback and the Questionnaire

Q1.Is it a valuable for of assessment: 76% strongly agreed/agreed Q2.Feedback during a crit has improved a project: 76% strongly agreed/agreed Feedback findings from students responses

What do the students think : Students would like to have more peer feedback Value - who will hear or listen to what I have to say Although verbal feedback is valuable it seems to be less important than written feedback Collect the grade - Students who have no work simply do not attend feedback Mixed Messages - Lecturers don’t tell them what they want and if they do they often change their minds A crit is critical/feedback is negative feel like there is no compliments and are negative Feedback is forgotten -students cant remember a lot of their feedback – a positive comment followed by a negative comment is forgotten Students do not like it when the time and effort they feel they have out into work is not recognised

Q6.All students get equal time allocated for feedback: third agree/strongly agree and third disagree/strongly disagree  More interesting work attracts more comment. Some students have no work. Sometimes we run out of time  It depends on the quality of work - If its bad there is less to say/discuss  Students feel time should be allocated equally suggesting time limits and timed presentations. Staff like the organic go with the flow method  I don’t think that the students who struggle most get the help they require and are almost pushed aside because they are not achieving at the same level as others  Critiques occur too late and too close to work being handed in

Q8. Is it as easy to manage 30 students in a group as 15: 62% strongly disagree/disagree  Students prefer smaller group sizes and individualised feedback  Large group crits take too long, in large groups the allocation of time gets smaller ( or the crit gets longer) and feedback gets shorter  Large groups get boring  Smaller groups give more detailed and in depth feedback  Group size seems to correlate to feelings of stress i.e. increases and decreases in size are the same as the stress felt My findings are that most students, find the group Art Crit stressful and use the following words to describe them ‘scary, dread, intimidating, embarrassing’

Q10. All students contribute to the feedback of others – only 7 students answered positively to this question  Suggest that nerves and lack of experience/confidence plays a part  More directed questions and some form of preparation toward the crit  Ask for opinions directly  I always think it’s a bit mean asking directly. Some students don’t say anything, but they shouldn’t be picked on In a recent poll less than 10% of Level four students indicated that they felt confident of offering an opinion on the work of others or had experience of doing so

Q9. The group crit is stressful to students – only 7 respondents felt that it wasn’t a stressful experience.  Some people stress and hate talking about their work. Produce a good piece of work you shouldn’t get stressed.  That depends on the quality of work (if any)  Better if smaller groups. (Group size seem to increase/decrease the stress factor)  The feedback received is stressful – should be positive comments not just negative One respondent when responding to a question on how to improve the group Crit says ‘good question-how can you make a firing squad less scary’

The BLOG

In my research students themselves have a negative view of the criticism and pressure that feedback and the public speaking of crit creates. The students view is in direct apposition to those of educators responding to the same questions. Indeed the experience of the crit/feedback is intimidating to many students and whilst art staff see them as an essential learning tool which encompasses many positive values such as peer to peer feedback, dynamic verbal presentations and learning sessions, increased motivation and confidence. Only a small minority see the Crit at best as a necessary evil or a teaching method, which means that they are for being toughened up for the real art world (Day 2009). The need for some sort of distress for a ‘rehearsal’ and/or ‘planning’ session prior to a crit itself is seen as essential by students (Day 2009) whereby respondents proposed the need for pre-planning a crit in order to gain the most from its feedback. Where now with the BLOG Conclusion

Where Now: Student Editors – peer to peer feedback and editing feedback Customised feedback and online interaction Profile creation and curation Data management and profiling to direct feedback Make a feedback experience which is unique for each student